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Poll: Do you have your own company?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: Do you have your own company?

#41

Post by will_brown »

adamb_ wrote: post #32

I'm considering making the transition from sole proprietor to LLC for my on-the-side consulting... Advice from friends range from "it's a no-brainer!" to "it's more trouble than it's worth". I don't make a lot doing my side-work (under $10k), but the amount has grown year-over-year. Any advice on incorporating?

Advice: consult with an attorney.

More generally, if you are considering the LLC for legal protection, I would not advise the LLC if you will be the sole owner (aka single member LLC), despite the name you will generally not receive limited liability protection. As an attorney I always take a very conservative approach when it comes to legal protection.

Re: Poll: Do you have your own company?

#43

Post by patio11 »

Two LLCs, one for Appointment Reminder and one for everything else. The separation is exactly because AR has potentially high liability in event of a HIPAA incident and, while I'm insured against it, I don't want DHS to have a claim on substantially all of my business assets in the event that everything goes wrong.

I go back and forth on whether I want to take investment at some point. At the moment, mostly working on other things, but who knows what the future holds.

Re: Poll: Do you have your own company?

#44

Post by tbrownaw »

No. I work at a 10k+ person non-tech company, doing one-off data migrations when we get new clients and writing tools to help with same.

I have a couple thoughts for paying side projects, but they're stuck (and have been for a long time) behind personal issues that really should be more important but I never seem to find time to fix. Yay procrastination!

Re: Poll: Do you have your own company?

#45

Post by throwaway520141 »

bentcorner wrote: post #31
throwaway520141 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am currently doing this. What I am doing on the side or the companies I am doing it for does not compete in any way with what my day job company produces. Edit - I do have the problem you are describing though. Where to find clients who will pay a reasonable rate. Don't mean to spam but since this seems relevant, full story here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7821974

This is, I feel, the biggest problem seen by people who want to jump ship from salaried positions to freelancing/independent contracting. I've asked around a little bit whenever this topic comes up and the majority of people who I've talked to say that their best source of customers comes from people that they know. Not a very satisfying answer for me, since I don't know a whole lot of people (maybe that's just my vi…

This is exactly right. If you are a salaried developer or lead who has not had too many jobs in the past, your chances of 'people you know who know how good you are at your work AND have the authority to sign or highly recommend you for a contract' are pretty slim.

Re: Poll: Do you have your own company?

#46

Post by lacus »

Coincidentally, today is my last day as a practicing attorney. I quit in order to work full-time on a startup I founded (image platform --> high-growth and/or intent for funding).

I should probably get around to incorporating or figuring out what the best structure is for us since I'll likely begin to seek seed/angel funding in the next few weeks and the startup is going to exist in a fairly IP-heavy space so presumably there's a certain amount of added exposure there, but legal structure is definitely the least interesting part of this process for me.

Re: Poll: Do you have your own company?

#47

Post by theandrewbailey »

The pressure to create your own company in the tech world is insane. Even during college, I remember one instructor saying that he expected everyone to start a company or two. The problem is that I'm idea bankrupt. Everything I've thought about has been done already. That feeds into the negative feedback/lazyness cycle I'm stuck in.

Re: Poll: Do you have your own company?

#48

Post by andrewfong »

adamb_ wrote: post #32

I'm considering making the transition from sole proprietor to LLC for my on-the-side consulting... Advice from friends range from "it's a no-brainer!" to "it's more trouble than it's worth". I don't make a lot doing my side-work (under $10k), but the amount has grown year-over-year. Any advice on incorporating?

LLC makes sense if you're worried about potential downside from your consulting arrangements -- e.g. how much are you on the hook for if you fail to deliver? LegalZoom or RocketLawyer is probably fine for getting set up initially -- talk to an actual lawyer if you end up hiring someone or subcontracting work out to people.

Talk to accountant about tax hassles with LLCs.

Re: Poll: Do you have your own company?

#49

Post by icedchai »

adamb_ wrote: post #32

I'm considering making the transition from sole proprietor to LLC for my on-the-side consulting... Advice from friends range from "it's a no-brainer!" to "it's more trouble than it's worth". I don't make a lot doing my side-work (under $10k), but the amount has grown year-over-year. Any advice on incorporating?

for one guy, don't bother unless you want extra paperwork.

Re: Poll: Do you have your own company?

#50

Post by poulsbohemian »

bentcorner wrote: post #31
throwaway520141 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am currently doing this. What I am doing on the side or the companies I am doing it for does not compete in any way with what my day job company produces. Edit - I do have the problem you are describing though. Where to find clients who will pay a reasonable rate. Don't mean to spam but since this seems relevant, full story here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7821974

This is, I feel, the biggest problem seen by people who want to jump ship from salaried positions to freelancing/independent contracting. I've asked around a little bit whenever this topic comes up and the majority of people who I've talked to say that their best source of customers comes from people that they know. Not a very satisfying answer for me, since I don't know a whole lot of people (maybe that's just my vi…

Bentcorner - email sent.

Best single sentence sound byte I can offer is unfortunately straight out of Glengarry Glen Ross: “Always Be Closing.” Which is to say, the way to develop those customers that just happen to be people you know is to constantly be putting yourself out there. I’ll go to several networking events in Seattle next week, several more in Portland, then will be back in Portland a week later. Then I’ll hit several more in Bend, Oregon a few weeks after that. I’m not a “sales guy” I’m a tech guy by training and experience, but if you want to be in business for yourself at any level, you have to take the initiative to develop those relationships.

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